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| Resources in Awakening | ||||||||
a
center for Arlington, MA 02474 Non-Dual or Integral Living Collective Awakening |
Spiritual Foundation: Awakening to the Absolute Overcoming Obstacles to a Stable Awakening Non-Dual Integration of Absolute and Relative Views
Awakening to the Absolute The Great Way is not difficult for those not attached to preferences. If you wish to know the truth, When the fundamental nature of things is not recognized Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting Be serene and at one with things and erroneous views will disappear by themselves. **************** When movement stops, there is no movement— For the Realized mind at one with the Way and the Truth is confirmed in you. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no need to exert the mind. there is neither self nor other-than-self. To know this Reality directly This Dharma-truth has nothing to do with big or small, with time and space. but everywhere always right before your eyes. Don't waste your time in arguments and discussion Each thing reveals the One, the One manifests as all things. Words! Words! The Way is beyond Language, for in it there is no yesterday no tomorrow no today. excerpts from Hsin Hsin Ming, Verses on the Faith-Mind, by Seng-ts'an. Third Zen Patriach, translated by Richard B. Clarke
In his amazingly poetic and articulate way, Seng-ts'an is pointing to the universal, the immeasureable, the timeless reality that poets, mystics, saints and seers have described, and that all of us can awaken to and know as our "True Nature", our "Buddha Nature", " the eternal ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death." Also known as Pure Consciousness, Being, Presence, One Taste, and more, the realization of this truth, this knowledge of the Transcendent Spirit as the Truth of our Self, is the goal of spiritual practice and most religious enquiry. Tat Tvam Asi, the great teaching phrase of Vedanta, says it succinctly. That (infinite, immeasurable wholeness) is you! In these verses, Seng-t'san also describes the integration of this "knowing" with "being", in the world of time, space and forms. This is the non-dual realization of enlightenment and the essence of all mature spiritual teachings. ; nirvana (unchanging wholeness) is never separate from samsara (the impermanence of forms) Although words are inherently limiting, subject to multiple interpretations, often context driven, and fraught with pitfalls and traps of misunderstanding and confusion, ( Words! Words! The Way is beyond Language, for in it there is no yesterday no tomorrow, no today) the great genius of the mystic poets, many saints (realized beings) and mature spiritual teaching systems is their ability to articulate the ineffable, to point to that which is always present but rarely noticed by a mind pre-occupied with itself. . Recognizing this, Lao T'zu begins his non-dual masterpiece, the Tao Te Ching, with these acknowledging phrases: The tao that can be told The unnamable is the eternally real Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Yet mystery and manifestations Darkness within darkness. What Seng t-san and Lao Tzu are pointing to cannot be understood in a cognitive way, nor approached through thought, but can be 'seen' or 'realized' when the mind lets go of its conditioned habits and compulsive behavior and just allows on-going flow of "this moment" to be sensed, noticed and released. This makes teaching quite challenging in a culture that is conditioned to convert all experiences into thought and to lose track of what is actually appearing in this moment. Fortunately, there are several spiritual teaching traditions with refined strategies to break the habits and allow an opening or awakening into the infinity of now. And, as the Universe is very much alive, newly emerging teachings are appearing in the 21st century carrying insights and revelations only recently available to the human community. The classical ones we will explore include Vedanta, the oldest of the non-dual teachings and the Buddhist approaches of Zen, Dzog-chen and Vipassana. Vedanta, the sacred spiritual tradition of India uses the lessons and life stories in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and other sacred texts to help guide the novice through the challenging awakening process. Buddhism relies on meditation practice and the cultivation of awakened qualities such as loving kindness, generosity and compassion. Ramana Maharshi, one of the spiritual giants of the 20th century used the direct transmission of silent presence to awaken many of his followers. Two modern and quite unique spiritual teachers, Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie have evolved their own style of presenting the Non-dual view as a way of life. In all of these traditions and approaches, spiritual knowledge arises through the refinement of an internally directed awareness, observing the mind and the moment to moment unfolding of our inner experience and integrating this with the infinite mystery of the natural world as it emerges moment by moment in the unfolding of the universe. Scriptures, sacred books and sacred poetry and the living presence of realized beings are the repositories of this spiritual knowlege. Vedanta The first Advaita teachings appear in the Upanishads, the wisdom section of the Vedas, the ancient scriptural texts of India, and continue to this day as Vedanta. Vedanta is not a philosophical school, as sometimes noted, but an independent means of knowledge about the nature of the non-dual "I". The subject matter of Vedanta is what is most desirable for the individual, the discovery of the truth of themselves, known in Sanskit as moksha or enlightnement. There is only one definitive teaching in Vedanta, Tat Tvam Asi. Known as the maha vakya, the great sentence, that you are, lays out the whole teaching in three words. That refers to wholeness, fullness, limitless existence and consciousness, the formless and the world of forms. Tvam is you, the student, the questioner, the subject. Asi is the equivalence, the equal sign in the equation. You are the Whole ! This equivalence is not obvious and the truth of these words has to be unfolded by the scriptures through the guidance of a realized teacher. Enlightenment does not require the addition of anything. Only the removal of ignorance, avidya, obscuring the Truth. In this course we will use the Bhagavad Gita as our primary reference. In 18 chapters, the story of the seeker, Arjuna, the teacher, Krishna, and the VEdantic teachings of non-dual self-realization are unfolded with unsurpassed subtlety and depth Dzogchen Dzogchen, the Natural Great Perfection teachings, first appeared in India somewhere around 200BCE and migrated to Tibet 900 years later. The Tibetan term Dzogchen corresponds to the Sanskrit term Mahasandhi, and is great and perfect because it is complete and perfect in itself, bypassing all cultural images, forms, philosophies, rituals and religious trappings. Dzogchen refers to the primordial state of the individual, our inherent Buddha nature, accessible to all at any time. For those of you who are ready, Lama Surya Das has released an integrated book/cd, Natural Radiance, produced by Sounds True of Boulder Colorado, which has "not only written information about the practices, but also the direct energy and sound vibrations on a cd of Surya's, voice giving personal guided practices, passed on by a living lama who received these instructions through the ancient, tried and true initiatory process of oral transmission." Zen Beginner's Mind "In the beginners mind there are many possibilities. In the experts, there are few". Zen is another direct path Buddhist teaching, originating in China as Ch'an, from the Sanskrit word dhyana meaning meditation. For those interested in a history of the development and evolution of Zen can refer to "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts. What we are interested here is the essence of Zen, the Zen mind, so to speak, that is simultaneously quite ordinary and yet infinitely profound. A special transmission outside the scriptures No dependence on words or letters Seeing directly into the mind of man Realizing true nature, becoming Buddha (Attributed to Bodhidharma, the Indian master and 28th dharma descendent of the Buddha who brought Zen to China.) If you are trying to attain enlightenment, you are creating and being driven by karma, and you are wasting your time on your black cushion". Suzuki Roshii in Zen Mind, Beginer's Mind We will use the Hsin Hsin Ming as a guide, but In Zen, sitting practice, shikan'taza is the primary vehicle of awakening. Overcoming Obstacles to Absolute Realization
The great spiritual teachers are not only grounded in the non-dual vision of emptiness and form, but understand the obstacles and impediments that stand in the way of others coming to the same realization. Buddha describes the awakened state as the end of suffering, but not wanting to perpetuate confusion, offers no more commentary on what the end of suffering is like. His teaching is on the elimination of suffering and working with the obstacles that arise in the human mind, perpetuating the suffering and obscuring the inner vision of our true nature. The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hahn are two contemporary Buddhist teachers who each uphold this lineage in their own unique way Patanjali takes a similar tack as he begins the first chapter of his Yoga Sutras. "Yoga is the cessation of disturbing mind activity. Then one's true nature is seen clearly and the knowledge of this truth remains stable." For the next 193 sutras, Patanjali teaches how to eliminate the disturbing mind activity and unfold the latent powers of the mind, but remains silent on the true nature of the seer, the self, the immeasurable. The Bhagavad Gita, the spiritual poem at the heart of Vedanta, the wisdom tradition of India, presents both the transcendent vision and the struggles of the seeker, in an extrordinary masterpiece of literature and spiritual genius. Krishna, the embodiment and voice of Absolute Divinity instructs Arjuna, the universal struggling student. The practices that help overcome obstacles and impediments are known in Sanskrit as upayas and a major portion of spiritual practice involves understanding the nature of impediments and applying the relevant skillful means to them when they arise. Upayas from the Yoga Sutras
Abhyasa, Vairagyam Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Upeksha Tapas, Svadhyaya, Ishvara Pranidhana Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi Upayas from Buddhism 8 Fold Path: Right View, Right Intentions, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration 10 Paramitas (virtuous actions) (1) generosity (dana); (2) morality (sila) (3) patience (ksanti); (4) courage (virya); (5) meditation (samadhi) (6) intuitive insight (prajña (7) skilful means (upaya-kausalya) (8) vow (pranidhana); (9) power (bala); (10) knowledge (jñana). Other Upayas
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